The future of United Colors of Benetton is ever more colourful. Newly interpreted, color returns to the forefront in an iconic Spring/Summer 2013 fashion campaign which uses the original stories of a cosmopolitan team of ambassadors to illustrate United Colors of Benetton's passion, innovation and openness to the world, looking to the future and embracing the challenges of tomorrow.
This campaign breaks new ground for the Benetton Group brand. Starting this season and using an ever changing set of ambassadors, it rolls out a totally new format based – in the words of Chairman Alessandro Benetton – on “the iconic value of color – a founding value for United Colors of Benetton and once again at the centre of our aesthetics and communications – to give a powerful assertion of the identity and excellence of this brand, which holds diversity as a value, and the unity of differences as a wealth to be treasured.”
The photo shoot for the United Colors of Benetton S/S 2013 fashion campaign was held in Paris at Pin-Up Studios, last November. At this three-day shoot, nine major ambassadors for style and life – personalities who have distinguished themselves for their multiculturality, cosmopolitan spirit and social commitment – “talked” to the camera about their interpretation of color, the chromatic mirror of the talent and personality that have placed them in the limelight around the world.
This season’s campaign features: Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, tunisian model, with her professionalism and dedication has become an example to many other Arab women with the same dream; Kiera Chaplin, actress, model and granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, in addition to being an active supporter of UNESCO, works with a foundation caring for young people; Charlotte Free, Californian model known for her pink hair; Mario Galla, differently-able German model, successfully treads the catwalks; Dudley O’Shaughnessy, British actor and model, and former national welterweight champion, has taken the values of loyalty and competitive spirit from his boxing and transferred them to the world of fashion; Matias Perdomo, Uruguayan chef, has brought an original intercontinental mix to his restaurant in Milan, combining tradition and innovation; Lea T, trans-sexual Brazilian model, is overcoming prejudice; Alek Wek is actively committed to drawing international attention to the humanitarian disaster in her homeland of Sudan; and, Elettra Wiedemann has been bringing her refined, cosmopolitan culture to the world of fashion since the age of 15, alongside an attention to the environment and natural resources.
The new United Colors of Benetton campaign, created to celebrate and support the launch of the Spring/Summer 2013 collection, purposedly features the brand's iconic knitwear. Melange tricot in a wide palette of colors symbolizes the new collection, in which simplicity reigns supreme: basic is Fashion.
A limited edition T-shirt with images from the campaign will be sold across the world, online at shop.benetton.com and in flagship United Colors of Benetton stores. All proceeds raised from the sale of the T-shirts will be donated in support of the activities of the UNHATE Foundation.
The campaign, developed under the creative direction of Fabrica, will roll out shortly in the press, on billboards, in sales outlets and online.
This symbolic use of color has inspired everything from the vibrant new windows of the United Colors of Benetton stores, to the web. The chromatic experience is, in fact, key to a new soon-to-be launched website, a dynamic platform that will aggretate user-generated feeds with color-hashtags – pictures, posts, phrases, tweets – from Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and the mobile network thus building an online community interely dedicated to colors.
The web project will be accompanied and integrated with an app, which will become a site content generator in its own right. There will also be an editorial space with an international outlook. A collection of magazine-style news, developed around a single theme: color.
Similarly, quotations, epigrams, expressions and proverbs about color will animate the colourful windows of the United Colors of Benetton stores in streets and squares around the world. You might find anything, from learned phrases, to the favourite color of anyone who wishes to express a thought, an idea or a motto about the colors closest to their heart.
